Natural immunity more potent than vaccines during US Delta wave: study

A nurse prepares a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 at a vaccination center in Mexico City (AFP/PEDRO PARDO)

Wed, January 19, 2022

During America's last surge of the coronavirus driven by the Delta variant, people who were unvaccinated but survived Covid were better protected than those who were vaccinated and not previously infected, a new study said Wednesday.

The finding is the latest to weigh in on a debate on the relative strengths of natural versus vaccine-acquired immunity against SARS-CoV-2, but comes this time with the imprimatur of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The authors of the paper warned, however, against depending on infection as a strategy, given the higher risks to unvaccinated persons of hospitalization, long term impacts, and death, compared to vaccinated people.

"Viruses are constantly changing, including the virus that causes Covid-19," the CDC said in a statement.

"The level of protection offered by vaccination and surviving a previous infection changed during the study period. Vaccination remains the safest strategy for protecting against Covid-19," it added.

The analysis was also carried out before the emergence of the Omicron variant, for which both vaccine and infection-derived immunity appear diminished, and before boosters were made widely available.

The new study involved patients in New York and California between May 30 to November 30, 2021.

Prior to Delta becoming dominant, vaccination conferred greater immunity than infection. But the relationship shifted when the variant became predominant in late June and July.

By the week of October 3, case rates among vaccinated people without prior Covid were around six times lower in California and five times lower in New York compared to those who were unvaccinated and without prior Covid.

But the rates were substantially lower among people with previous Covid, including around 29 times (California) and 15 times lower (New York) among unvaccinated persons with a previous diagnosis, compared to those who were unvaccinated and without prior Covid.

Protection was highest among those who had both vaccination and prior Covid.

Hospitalizations followed a similar pattern.

Other research, including a notable paper from Israel in August, have similarly found that natural immunity was more potent than vaccines during the Delta surge.

But the US CDC had previously taken the opposite position, based on pre-Delta data.

"Further studies are needed to establish duration of protection from previous infection by variant type, severity, and symptomatology, including for the Omicron variant," the paper concluded.

ia/dw

Sudan protester shot dead as US envoys visit

Sudanese women sit atop a brick barricade at 60th Street on January 18, 2022 in the capital Khartoum as part of a civil disobedience campaign following the killing of seven anti-coup demonstrators (AFP/-)

Wed, January 19, 2022, 1:06 PM·3 min read

Sudanese security forces shot dead an anti-coup protester on Wednesday as American diplomats visited Khartoum seeking to help end a crisis which has claimed dozens of lives and derailed the country's democratic transition.

For two days shops have shuttered and protesters have blockaded streets in a civil disobedience campaign to protest the killing of seven people during a demonstration on Monday, one of the bloodiest days since the October 25 military coup.

The latest killing took place in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman where protesters opposed to the coup had set up barricades.

Pro-democracy medics from the Doctors' Committee said the protester was shot in the torso "by live bullets of the (security) forces".

Witnesses also reported the use of tear gas by security forces in Omdurman and eastern Khartoum.

The death brings to 72 the number of people killed in a security crackdown against protesters who have taken to the streets -- sometimes in the tens of thousands -- calling for a return to the country's democratic transition and opposing the latest military putsch.

Protesters have been shot by live rounds and hundreds have been wounded, according to the Doctors' Committee.

The Forces for Freedom and Change, the leading civilian pro-democracy group, called for more protests on Thursday in Khartoum "in tribute to the martyrs", and nationwide on Friday.

- 'Systematic violence' -

Before the latest fatality, US Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee and special envoy for the Horn of Africa, David Satterfield, held meetings with the bereaved families of people killed during the protests, the US embassy said.

They also met with members of the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), an umbrella of unions which were instrumental in protests which ousted president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, as well as the mainstream faction of the Forces for Freedom and Change.

Its spokesman Wagdy Saleh said they pleaded for "an end to the systematic violence towards civilians" and a "credible political process".

The diplomats are scheduled to meet with others including military leaders and political figures.

"Their message will be clear: the United States is committed to freedom, peace, and justice for the Sudanese people," the US State Department said ahead of the visit.

The diplomats held earlier talks in Saudi Arabia with the "Friends of Sudan" -- a group of Western and Arab countries favouring transition to civilian rule.

- 'Reestablish public trust' -

In a statement, the group backed a United Nations initiative announced last week to hold intra-Sudanese consultations to break the political impasse.

"We urge all to engage in good faith and reestablish public trust in the inevitable transition to democracy," the group said.

"Ideally this political process will be time-bound and culminate in the formation of a civilian-led government which will prepare for democratic elections."

While the US diplomats visited, coup leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced that vice-ministers -- some of whom served before the coup and some appointed after -- would now become ministers.

A statement from his office called it a "cabinet in charge of current affairs".

But it has no prime minister, since the civilian premier Abdalla Hamdok resigned in early January after trying to cooperate with the military.

As part of the civil disobedience campaign, judicial workers including prosecutors and judges said they would not work for a state committing "crimes against humanity".

University professors, corporations and doctors also joined the movement, according to separate statements.

Sudan's authorities have repeatedly denied using live ammunition against demonstrators, and insist scores of security personnel have been wounded during protests. A police general was stabbed to death last week.

bur/lg/it

Seniors join climate fight in South Korea, redress for 'dark side' of economic boom

By Thomas Maresca

South Korean senior citizens have joined the climate movement with a group called 60+ Climate Action, which held its first event on Wendesday.

 Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI

SEOUL, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Dozens of senior citizens took to the snowy streets of Seoul on Wednesday to lend their voices to a climate movement that is typically the domain of much younger activists.

Calling themselves 60+ Climate Action, the seniors staged a rally outside the city's historic Tapgol Park and marched to a nearby plaza in downtown Seoul, wearing green face masks and carrying hand-drawn signs with personal messages to their grandchildren.

The group's organizers said it was time for South Korea's older generations -- often conservative-leaning and considered deeply out of step with the fast-moving society -- to get more involved with the most urgent issue of the day.

"The climate crisis is not only an issue for the young generation," Yun Jung-sook, a longtime environmental activist and co-director of 60+ Climate Action, said. "We think that 60+ people need to change our role, to show a new, active and different voice."

Yun said older generations grew up celebrating South Korea's stunning industrial transformation from a ravaged post-war nation to a global economic powerhouse -- a change that came with an environmental cost, as the country became one of Asia's biggest greenhouse gas emitters.

"From the very early days of elementary school, we learned that economic growth is progress, is success," Yun said. "But there was a dark side."

Now the seniors are trying to do something to address the legacy they've left behind.

"Our generation got to enjoy the industrial development," 67-year-old Min Yoon Hea-kyung said. "But we produced too much. We consumed too much. And we didn't care enough about our future generations. So now we've got to help change things for the generation coming up."

The South Korean seniors aren't alone -- a growing number of gray-haired groups have sprung up around the world, such as the Swiss grandmothers who sued their government for failing to protect them from heatwaves caused by climate change.

Bill McKibben, one of America's foremost environmental writers and activists, also recently founded his own group to mobilize senior support for climate issues, Third Wave.

The activists on Wednesday said senior citizens bring a number of advantages to the climate action movement.

"Some are very well-educated, some have connections, some have many more resources than the younger generation," said Rhee Kyung-hee, 74, a retired professor. "Most important of all -- we have plenty of free time."

The 60+ Climate Action group was initially formed in September and counts around 100 active members, with several hundred more who have signed on to express their support.

Members have started projects such as a visit to environmentally vulnerable areas on the island of Jeju to meet with locals and help attract media attention. Organizers are working on letter-writing campaigns and looking to increase the pressure on political and business leaders to address the climate crisis.

South Korea has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030-- but the country still remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels for its energy needs, generating around 40% of its electricity from coal and only 6.5% from renewable sources.

Climate watchdogs say South Korea's goals are not nearly enough to meet the demands of the 2015 Paris Climate Accords, which aim to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in order to avoid environmental catastrophe.

"The people realize that climate crisis is a serious issue but the government is moving too slow," Yun said. "This is not an agenda for the future or for the young. It is here, right now, and all the generations have to be involved."

“It’s taxes or pitchforks.”

'Tax us now' to reduce wealth inequality, say global millionaires

Joanna YORK 

More than 100 millionaires say current tax systems are “not fair” and increasing wealth tax would help resolve inequalities made dramatically worse by the Covid health crisis

© Jonathan Ernst, Reuters

Millionaires from around the world have signed an open letter asking governments to tax them at higher rates.

The letter was published online Wednesday, mid-way through Davos, the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting being held virtually this year.

The signatories of the letter, which was the result of a joint initiative from inequality advocacy groups Patriotic Millionaires, Millionaires for Humanity and TaxMeNow, said current tax systems were “not fair”.

“Most of us can say that, while the world has gone through an immense amount of suffering in the last two years, we have actually seen our wealth rise during the pandemic – yet few if any of us can honestly say that we pay our fair share in taxes.”

“The world – every country in it – must demand the rich pay their fair share” wrote millionaire signatories from the US, UK, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway and Iran.

This comes as Oxfam on Wednesday released a report detailing how the pandemic has exacerbated wealth inequality around the world. According to the report the unique circumstances of the pandemic have pushed an extra 160 million people into poverty, while the world’s 10 richest men have doubled their fortunes.

>>World’s 10 richest men doubled their wealth during pandemic, Oxfam reports

Tackling inequalities

“Wealth is just continuing to concentrate now in the hands of the few, and then it's leading to deeper societal problems,” UK signatory Gemma McGough, an entrepreneur and member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, told FRANCE 24.

An annual wealth tax applied to the world's richest would raise US $2.52 trillion a year, analysis by the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, and Patriotic Millionaires found, with a graduated rate structure of 2% tax on wealth over $5 million; 3% on wealth over $50 million; 5% on wealth over $1 billion.

It estimated the funds would be sufficient to make enough vaccines for the whole world and deliver universal health care and social protection for all of the 3.6 billion citizens of low and lower middle-income countries, among other issues.

“If we don't tackle the huge inequalities, and the power and wealth that billionaires and millionaires have, we can't solve climate change [or make progress on] the feminist movement or the human rights movement. It's in the interest of all of us to push for quite a different future,” Jenny Ricks, Global Convenor at the Fight Inequality Alliance told FRANCE 24.

McGough added, “99% of people in the world saw their incomes fall during the pandemic and the cost of living is increasing. If you are in the 1%, then you look at your own situation and see it’s not the same - that’s not right. It's not fair. We know we are in a position to shoulder more of the burden.”
Drawing attention to the cause

Research from Credit Suisse found that the global number of millionaires rose to 56.1 million in 2020, an increase of 5.1 million in a year.

While only 100 millionaires signed the open letter, signatory Djaffar Shalchi, founder of Millionaires for Humanity, told FRANCE 24 it was a way to counter the narrative that taxing the wealthy hurts business development and damages the economy. “Millionaires have a unique role to play in advocating for wealth tax,” he said. “We want politicians to understand that not all millionaires agree with the policy of decreasing taxes for the rich.”

This is the third letter of its kind the group has sent, and high-profile signatories include Abigail Disney, grandniece of founder Walt Disney, and Nick Hanauer, who was an early investor in Amazon.

In a Twitter video, Disney was scathing about the Davos conference, where invitees typically include business leaders, senior politicians and billionaires. This year the theme of the conference is "working together to restore trust".

“I’ve been to Davos. It grossed me out. The idea that this many billionaires have to gather in a teeny, tiny place that regular folk can’t get into to discuss matters does not create trust,” Disney said.

Releasing the letter at the same time as the conference is an important way to raise awareness and stimulate discussion about wealth tax said Ricks. “It's not the 1% at Davos that have got the answers to the inequality crisis, it is the people who are facing those inequalities,” she told FRANCE 24.

A growing movement

The UK branch of Patriotic Millionaires started with just four members in 2020, including McGough and screenwriter Richard Curtis. Now membership is growing monthly and into diverse kinds of wealth, from those who have inherited money to those who have made their own.

Interest in the concept of wealth tax is also growing among the non-wealthy. The Fight Inequality Alliance, which campaigns against various forms of inequality, now has 50 member organisations worldwide. “We have a very diverse membership with young people, women's groups, trade unions, informal workers, environmentalists, human rights defenders. There is a growing constituency of people who understand that the situation is out of control and change is urgent," said Ricks.

However, for every tax activist, the question remains; “How interested are people in tax? The image of tax is something negative, complicated, and inaccessible” says Carla Hoppe, founder of Rethink Tax, a tax policy and education organisation in the UK. In this context, raising awareness and interest in how and why we are taxed is crucial. “We need better discussion around how we fix the tax system, because it isn't fit for purpose,” she told FRANCE 24.

Hoppe would ultimately like to see governments introduce methods to give voters more say in how they are taxed. She is sceptical as to whether wealth tax alone will provide a comprehensive solution to wealth inequality, even if it is implemented.

“What causes wealth inequality tends to be capital assets, like property and businesses, that effectively protect their owners from economic shocks. A wealth tax could go a long way to reducing inequality, but it very much depends on whether it captures those assets in its remit, and there are other reforms of current taxes which could be implemented more easily.”

Others have more hope. “Historically, when there's been big pandemics and big shocks to society, like after the Second World War, and after the financial crisis in 2008, that's when governments have brought in wealth tax,” said Ricks.

In 2021 the pandemic provided the catalyst for the Argentinian government to introduce a one-off wealth tax for citizens with assets worth more than 200 million pesos (€1.7million), which raised the equivalent of US $2.4 billion to be put towards Covid relief measures. “It's at these moments in history when governments can be pushed into introducing wealth taxes”, Ricks said.

For political leaders at Davos, the open letter delivered a more direct warning. “History paints a pretty bleak picture of what the endgame of extremely unequal societies looks like”, they wrote. “It’s taxes or pitchforks.”

Millionaires call on governments worldwide to ‘tax us now’

Group of 102 wealthy people say tax would help tackle gulf between rich and poor

Gemma McGough, a British entrepreneur and founding

 member of Patriotic Millionaires UK. Photograph: PA


Rupert Neate 

Wealth correspondent

THE GUARDIAN
Wed 19 Jan 2022 

More than 100 members of the global super-rich called on Wednesday for governments around the world to “tax us now” to help pay for the pandemic response and tackle the gulf between rich and poor.

The group of 102 millionaires and billionaires, including Disney heiress Abigail Disney, said the current tax system is rigged in their favour and needs to be rewritten to make taxation fairer for hard-working people and restore trust in politics.

“As millionaires, we know that the current tax system is not fair,” they said in an open letter published on Wednesday. “Most of us can say that, while the world has gone through an immense amount of suffering in the last two years, we have actually seen our wealth rise during the pandemic – yet few if any of us can honestly say that we pay our fair share in taxes.”

The super-rich signatories, who brand themselves as “patriotic millionaires”, called for the introduction of “permanent wealth taxes on the richest to help reduce extreme inequality and raise revenue for sustained, long-term increases in public services like healthcare”.

“Restoring trust requires taxing the rich,” they said in the letter, published as world leaders and business executives meet for a virtual Davos World Economic Forum. “The world – every country in it – must demand the rich pay their fair share. Tax us, the rich, and tax us now.”

The group, which also includes Nick Hanauer, a venture capitalist who made an almost $1bn fortune from an early bet on Amazon, said an annual “wealth tax” on those with fortunes of more than $5m (£3.7m) could raise more than $2.52tr.

That would be enough, they said, to “lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty; make enough vaccines for the world and deliver universal healthcare and social protection for all the citizens of low and lower-middle-income countries (3.6 billion people).”

The proposed tax would see those with more than $5m pay 2%, rising to 3% for those with more than $50m and a 5% rate for dollar billionaires.

Taxing the UK’s wealthiest 119,000 people at these rates would raise an estimated £43.7bn, a year, according to an analysis by campaign groups Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam and the Patriotic Millionaires.

The signatories said this would be enough to:


Pay for the Health and Social Care Levy twice over every year – eliminating the need to raise national insurance on working people.


Cover the salaries of an additional 50,000 new nurses.


Pay for the permanent increase of universal credit.


Build 35,000 affordable houses and retrofit the UK’s draughtiest homes to reduce the cost of energy bills and help fight the climate crisis.

Gemma McGough, a British entrepreneur and founding member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, said:

“At a time when simply living will cost the average household a further £1,200 a year, our government cannot expect to be trusted if it would rather tax working people than wealthy people. If they do anything in the next few months, they should do this: rather than raising national insurance, tax the rich – tax us – instead.”

Jenny Ricks, global convenor at the Fight Inequality Alliance, said: “The insane reality is that while billions face a daily struggle to survive during this pandemic, billionaire-wealth is spiralling out of control. This cannot be right. The multiple crises we face from vaccine inequality to climate breakdown have a vice-like grip on people’s lives that is not letting up. For years Davos has shown us the elites cannot and will not end the virus of inequality they have helped to create and built their fortunes on the back of.”

Tax on America’s wealthiest households could erase half of country’s out-of-pocket health costs, report finds

Half of Americans delay or skip medical care because of growing costs

Alex Woodward
New York

The combined wealth of American billionaires increased by $2 trillion over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the collective fortunes of the nation’s wealthiest households topped more than $5 trillion.

A report from the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam and Patriotic Millionaires found that 3.6 million global households worth more than $5m have a combined wealth of more than $75 trillion.

An annual wealth tax applied to the world’s wealthiest people would raise $2.52 trillion a year – or more than $3.6 trillion a year with a more progressive tax structure – on household wealth over $5m, according to the report.

In the US, an annual wealth tax – with rates at 2 per cent over $5m, 3 per cent over $50m and 5 per cent over $1bn – would raise more than $928bn, the report found. A more progressive annual wealth tax at 10 per cent on wealth over $1bn would raise more than $1.3 trillion.

Such revenue “could raise the government’s health budget by a third or it could eliminate half of US households’ out-of-pocket health costs,” according to the report.

A progressive tax rate on the world’s wealthiest people “would be enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, make enough vaccines for the whole world, and deliver universal health care and social protection for all the citizens of low and lower middle-income countries,” impacting 3.6 billion people, according to the report.


“Wealth inequality has been supercharged by the pandemic, creating an unprecedented global concentration of wealth and power,” report co-author Chuck Collins with the Institute for Policy Studies and co-author of the report.

“Taxing the world’s wealthiest one-tenth of 1 per cent would raise substantial revenue for public investments in health and social protection and for a greater global response to the most urgent crises of our time,” he said. “During 2021, we witnessed the epidemic of Covid-19 and wealth-hiding, and it’s time to reverse course.”

Nearly half of US adults say it is difficult to afford out-of-pocket health costs not covered by their insurance providers, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Half of all US adults report delaying, skipping or putting off entirely some form of treatment – including regular checkups, dental and vision care, or going to the hospital – because of the cost, and nearly 30 per cent have not taken their medicine within the last year because of the price of prescription drugs, the report found.

In the US, there are nearly 1.5 million people with a net worth of $5m or more, with a total combined wealth of $28 trillion.

US billionaires own half a billion more in wealth than the bottom 60 per cent of the country, the report found.

Topping the list is Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose wealth climbed from $24.6bn in 2020 to $294.2bn in November 2021.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who moved to an “executive chairman” role at the retail giant last year, saw his pre-pandemic wealth surge from $113bn to $192 by mid-October.

Microsoft’s Bill Gates grew his wealth by $34.4bn, from $98bn to $132.4bn.

An annual billionaires list compiled by Forbes in 2021 found that the world’s wealthiest people have amassed more than $13 trillion combined, growing by 30 per cent from the previous year.

A vast majority of the hundreds of people on the Forbes list are wealthier today than they were two years ago, at the onset of the global health emergency and an economic fallout that left millions of people jobless in the months that followed and magnified issues of wealth inequality.

In a report published on Monday, Oxfam found that the 10 richest men in the world doubled their fortunes during the pandemic – with their wealth increasing from $700bn to $1.5 trillion between March 2020 and November 2021.

Meanwhile, the incomes of approximately 99 per cent of people around the globe fell during that same time, and more than 160 million people have been forced into poverty, according to Oxfam.

Legislative attempts to raise taxes on the wealthiest American households have languished as Congress mulls Joe Biden’s social spending packages.

One proposal from US Senator Ron Wyden would impact taxpayers with more than $1bn in assets or more than $100m in income for three consecutive years to raise $557m over 10 years.

A majority of Americans believe the nation’s billionaires should pay a wealth tax, according to polling from The Hill-Harris X.

Report: Taxing the World’s Richest Would Raise US $2.52 Trillion a Year

A new joint report from Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, and Patriotic Millionaires details what can be funded by simply taxing the rich.

BLOGGING OUR GREAT DIVIDE
JANUARY 18, 2022

by Chuck Collins

Anew analysis, “Taxing Extreme Wealth,” by the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, and Patriotic Millionaires found a shocking rise in global wealth among the world’s richest people despite deepening inequality during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The analysis, “Taxing Extreme Wealth: An annual tax on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires: What it would raise and what it could pay for,” published on January 19 by the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, and Patriotic Millionaires found that globally:

3.6 million people have over $5 million in wealth, with a combined wealth of $75.3 trillion, according to data commissioned for this study from Wealth-X.

183,300 households own over $50 million, for a combined wealth of $36.4 trillion, according to Wealth-X data.

There are 2,660 billionaires with a total combined wealth of $13.76 trillion. (Drawn from Forbes on November 30, 2021).

An annual wealth tax applied to the world’s richest would raise U.S. $2.52 trillion a year (with a graduated rate structure: 2 percent tax on wealth over $5 million; 3 percent on wealth over $50 million; 5 percent on wealth over $1 billion.)

A more steeply progressive wealth tax would raise U.S. $3.62 trillion a year (with graduated rates of 2 percent on wealth starting at $5 million; 5 percent on wealth over $50 million; and 10 percent on wealth over $1 billion.)

READ THE REPORT
Taxing Extreme Wealth

An annual tax on the world’s richest would be enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, make enough vaccines for the whole world, and deliver universal health care and social protection for all the citizens of low and lower middle-income countries (3.6 billion people).

This new global billionaire wealth analysis comes on the heels of a new Oxfam International report based on World Bank data that shows that while 99 percent of the world’s workers earned less money in 2021, the world’s ten wealthiest men more than doubled their fortunes. Meanwhile, global protests around the world are set to coincide with the World Economic Forum’s ‘State of the World’ online meetings.

In the US, roughly 750 U.S. billionaires have seen their wealth increase over $2 trillion since March 2020 for a combined wealth of over $5 trillion, according to previous research by the Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies. And there are over 63,500 individuals with wealth over $50 million with combined assets of $12.8 trillion, according to the new report, Taxing Extreme Wealth. An annual wealth tax would raise $928 billion a year, enough to eliminate half of household out-of-pocket health expenses in the U.S.

It is time to levy a wealth tax on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires. This is not to simply raise revenue to vaccinate the world and invest in robust public health systems. But a wealth tax that is intended to save democracy from the extreme concentrations of wealth and power.

Chuck Collins directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he also co-edits Inequality.org

What could a global tax on wealth of $5 million-plus pay for?

A new study finds that a wealth tax could provide the funding to vaccinate the entire world (just for starters).

01-18-22
7:01 PM
THE NEW CAPITALISM

Around the world, there are 3.6 million people who each have more than $5 million in wealth. More than 2,600 of those people are billionaires, with a total combined wealth of $13.76 trillion. If there were an annual wealth tax on these individuals, a new report says, it could raise $2.52 trillion a year—enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, make enough COVID-19 vaccines for the entire world, and deliver universal healthcare and social protection for everyone in low- and lower middle-income countries (3.6 billion people).

That figure comes from a new global wealth analysis using data from a consortium that includes the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, and Patriotic Millionaires. The wealth tax they propose would be a graduated rate structure, the report says, with a 2% tax on wealth of $5 million and above, 3% on $50 million and above, and 5% on $1 billion and above.

A more steeply progressive wealth-tax structure—2%, 5%, and 10%, respectively—would raise $3.62 trillion a year, per the report. In the U.S. alone, there are 1.4 million individuals with a net worth of $5 million or more, for a combined total of $28 trillion. The cost of vaccinating the entire world against COVID-19 has been projected at $27.8 billion; providing universal healthcare and social protections to low- and lower middle-income countries could cost another $440.8 billion.

These overall numbers are just an estimate, the report warns, as actual wealth-taxation levels would be specific to each country. Still, it’s an example of how a wealth tax—an initiative supported by politicians including senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and increasingly by members of the public (71% of American voters saying they support a tax on extreme wealth)—could raise the money to fund social protections and reduce poverty worldwide.

It would also reduce the total number of multimillionaires and billionaires, the numbers of which have grown exponentially during the pandemic, as wealth inequality has surged. Despite accounting for just 0.002% of the population, those who have $50 million and above currently hold 6.33% of all global wealth. In the U.S., billionaires own half a billion more in wealth than the entire bottom 60% of U.S. society.

This report, which uses data from Forbes and Wealth X, builds on another Oxfam report from earlier this week that found that the world’s 10 wealthiest men (including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Warren Buffet) have more than doubled their fortunes since the pandemic began.

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Taxing the World’s Richest Would Raise US $2.52 Trillion a Year

A new analysis by the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, and Patriotic Millionaires found a shocking rise in global wealth among the world's richest people despite deepening inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

January 18, 2022
Olivia Alperstein

PRESS CONTACTS

Olivia Alperstein in the U.S. | olivia@ips-dc.org | +1 (202) 704-9011

Annie Thériault in Peru | annie.theriault@oxfam.org | +51 936 307 990

Sam Quigley in the US| sam@patrioticmillionaires.org | +1 (317)752-9150

Meriame Yassi in the UK | media@fightinequality.org | +44 (0)7944 658488

A new analysis published on January 19 by the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, and Patriotic Millionaires found that globally:

• 3.6 million people have over $5 million in wealth, with a combined wealth of $75.3 trillion. (Wealth-X)
• 183,000 individuals own over $50 million, for a combined wealth of $36.4 trillion. (Wealth-X)
• There are 2,660 billionaires with a total combined wealth of $13.76 trillion. (Forbes, November 30, 2021).
• An annual wealth tax applied to the world’s richest would raise US $2.52 trillion a year (with a graduated rate structure: 2 % tax on wealth over $5 million; 3 % on wealth over $50 million; 5 % on wealth over $1 billion.)
• A more steeply progressive wealth tax would raise US $3.62 trillion a year (with graduated rates of 2 % on wealth starting at $5 million; 5 % on wealth over $50 million; and 10 % on wealth over $1 billion.)

An annual tax on the world’s richest would be enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, make enough vaccines for the whole world, and deliver universal health care and social protection for all the citizens of low and lower middle-income countries (3.6 billion people).

This new global billionaire wealth analysis comes on the heels of a new Oxfam report based on World Bank data that shows that while 99 percent of the world’s workers earned less money in 2021, the world’s 10 wealthiest men more than doubled their fortunes. Meanwhile, global protests around the world are set to coincide with the World Economic Forum’s ‘State of the World’ online meetings.

This latest rise in global wealth stands in stark contrast to loss of lives and jobs during the pandemic, which has pushed tens of millions more people into poverty and further increased inequalities, particularly in poorer nations around the world.

Read a summary of key highlights from the analysis here.

Read the full breakdown for billionaire wealth in specific countries and regions via individual fact sheets. 

Key highlights from United States analysis:

• • There are 1,436,275 individuals with a net worth of $5 million or more, with wealth totaling $28 trillion.
  • There are 63,505 individuals with $50 million or more with a combined wealth of $12.8 trillion.
  • Between 2016 and 2021, the number of individuals with wealth over $50 million increased from 37,140 to 63,505 with combined wealth increasing from $8.4 trillion to $12.8 trillion, a gain of 51.84 %, adjusted for inflation.
  • There are 740 U.S. billionaires with wealth totaling $5.1 trillion. Throughout the pandemic (beginning in mid-March 2020), the wealth of the U.S. American billionaire class increased $2 trillion.

• The richest billionaire owns more wealth than the bottom 40 % of U.S. society.

• U.S. billionaires own half a billion more in wealth than the bottom 60 % of U.S. society.
• An annual wealth tax in the United States would raise $928.39 billion a year (with rates at 2 % on wealth over $5 million, 3 % on wealth over $50 million and 5 % over $1 billion). This revenue could raise the government’s health budget by a third or it could eliminate half of U.S. households’ out of pocket health costs.
• A more progressive wealth tax would raise $1.34 trillion (with rates at 2 % on wealth over $5 million, 5 % on wealth over $50 million and 10 % over $1 billion).

The five richest people in the United States, as of November 30, 2021, are:

1. Elon Musk, $294.2 billion
2. Jeff Bezos, $202.6 billion
3. Bill Gates, $137.4 billion
4. Larry Ellison, $125.7 billion
5. Larry Page, $122.8 billion

“The insane reality is that whilst billions face a daily struggle to survive during this pandemic, billionaire wealth is spiraling out of control. This cannot be right, said Jenny Ricks, Global Convenor of the Fight Inequality Alliance. “For years Davos has shown us the elites cannot and will not end the virus of inequality they have helped to create. We now have the rare opportunity to create the economy and society we want but this requires deep system change rather than a rehash of the status quo. That’s why it’s time for wealth taxes on the super rich that could raise an eye watering $2.52 trillion a year globally and pay for a People’s Recovery Plan.”

“Wealth inequality has been supercharged by the pandemic, creating an unprecedented global concentration of wealth and power,” said Chuck Collins of the Institute for Policy Studies and co-author of the report. “Taxing the world’s wealthiest one-tenth of 1 percent would raise substantial revenue for public investments in health and social protection and for a greater global response to the most urgent crises of our time. During 2021, we witnessed the epidemic of COVID-19 and wealth-hiding, and it’s time to reverse course.”

“There is no defending a system that endlessly inflates the wealth of the world’s richest people while condemning billions to easily preventable poverty. We need deep, systemic change, and that starts with taxing rich people like me,” said Morris Pearl of the Patriotic Millionaires.

Spokespeople and lead authors of the report are available for comment or interviews.

To reach IPS experts, contact Olivia Alperstein at olivia@ips-dc.org or +1 (202) 704-9011.

To reach Oxfam experts, contact Annie Thériault at annie.theriault@oxfam.org or +51 936 307 990.

To reach Fight Inequality Alliance experts, contact Meriame Yassi at media@fightinequality.org +44749 44658488

To reach Patriotic Millionaires experts, contact Sam Quigley at sam@patrioticmillionaires.org or +1 (317) 752-9150.

About the Fight Inequality Alliance

Fight Inequality Alliance is a growing global movement organizing to counter the excessive concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a small elite. We are building a just, equal and sustainable world. We unite a wide range of social movements, grassroots and community based organizations, civil society organizations, trade unions, artists and individual activists from across the world.

About the Institute for Policy Studies

For nearly six decades, the Institute for Policy Studies has provided critical research support for major social movements and progressive leaders inside and outside government and on the ground around the United States and the world. As the United States’ oldest progressive multi-issue think tank, IPS turns bold ideas into action through public scholarship and mentorship of the next generation of progressive scholars and activists.

About Oxfam

Oxfam is a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice. We are working across regions in about 70 countries, with thousands of partners, and allies, supporting communities to build better lives for themselves, grow resilience and protect lives and livelihoods also in times of crisis.

Because we want lasting solutions, we fight the inequalities that keep people locked in poverty and injustice, we tackle not the symptoms but the systems, and we campaign for genuine, durable change.

About the Patriotic Millionaires

Members of the Patriotic Millionaires are high-net worth Americans, business leaders, and investors who are united in their concern about historic levels of inequality and the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in America. The mission of The Patriotic Millionaires organization is to build a stable, prosperous, and inclusive nation by promoting public policies based on the “first principles” of equal political representation, a guaranteed living wage for all working citizens, and a fair tax system.

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THIRD WORLD USA

Child poverty rate could jump to 17% this month, study finds

By Megan Hadley

Around 4 million children could go into poverty this month without the Child Tax credit that is being stalled in Congress. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The U.S child poverty rate could jump to 17% this month in absence of the Child Tax Credit, a new study found.

The Child Tax Credit reached over 60 million children in December, and on it's own, reduced childhood poverty by 30%, according to the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy.

However, that may change, as Congress has not acted to extend the payments into 2022.

Without the tax credit, childhood poverty could jump to 17% in January, the highest rate since December 2020.

"The monthly child tax credit payments have buffered family finances amidst the continuing COVID-19 pandemic," the report said.

That affects around 4 million children, who receive $250 to $300 a month in Government aid.

"Few federal programs have had such a direct & demonstrable impact on Americans as the expanded #ChildTaxCredit," Representative Suzan DelBene said on Twitter.

U.S. President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act -- which remains in limbo -- would have ensured that families receive a payment on Friday.

The effort hit a roadblock with opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., whose support is crucial in passing the legislation.

Though Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi believes that a deal can be reached, it wouldn't happen in time for families to receive a check this week.

US biotech tycoon opens Africa's first end-to-end Covid-19 jab plant

Scissor ceremony: President Cyril Ramaphosa, left, joins biotech tycoon Patrick Soon-Shiong in launching the vaccine hub (AFP/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA)

Wed, January 19, 2022, 4:53 AM·2 min read

US biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong on Wednesday opened a plant in Cape Town that will be the first in Africa to produce Covid-19 vaccines from start to finish.

The factory should churn out its first vials of second-generation coronavirus vaccine "within the year" and produce a billion doses annually by 2025, said Soon-Shiong.

The plant will be South Africa's third Covid vaccine manufacturing facility but the first in the continent to make the formula across every stage, rather than producing it from semi-finished batches.


Africa currently manufactures less than one percent of all vaccines administered on the continent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking at the inaugural event, hailed the plant as a sign of African self-reliance.

"Africa should no longer be the last in line to access vaccines against pandemics, African should no longer go cap in hand to the Western world begging and begging for vaccines," said Ramaphosa.

"We will stand on our own," he vowed.

He thanked Soon-Shiong, a South African-born and now United States-based doctor-turned-entrepreneur -- for returning "home" to invest in vaccine production.

Born in South Africa to Chinese parents and now a US citizen, the billionaire said the launch was "one of the momentous moments of my life -- this is a homecoming."

He made a fortune by inventing a cancer drug and then founded NantWorks, a California-based startup in healthcare, biotech and artificial intelligence, in 2007.

Production at the state-of-the-art vaccine manufacturing campus will be a collaborative effort between NantWorks, South African research institutions and four local universities.

"We have now developed this SN (spike nucleic) T-cell vaccine, a second-generation vaccine, and we want to manufacture this in Africa, for Africa, and export it to the world," said Soon-Shiong.

str-sn/ri

#UBI
How $1,000 a Month in Guaranteed Income Is Helping NY Mothers
Andy Newman
Tue, January 18, 2022

Daniela Gutierrez, with her 6 month old son, Jeremiah, at their apartment in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan on Dec. 17, 2021. (Gregg Vigliotti/The New York Times)

NEW YORK — The flyers that appeared at bus stops and nail salons and health clinics in upper Manhattan last June sounded too good to be true.

“New mothers can receive $500 or $1,000 a month, with no strings attached!” they read.

“I thought it was a scam,” said Angelina Matos, who had just given birth to a daughter.

It was not a scam. It was an experiment in the fast-growing field of anti-poverty policy known as guaranteed income.

In July, 100 new mothers in Washington Heights, Harlem and Inwood began receiving free money from a program called the Bridge Project: a $16 million effort, funded by a foundation started by a venture capitalist and his wife, to measure the effect of regular, unconditional stipends on low-income families.

Much of the money is going toward basic baby supplies. But interviews with four women in the program turned up many examples of the surprises and challenges life can throw at a new mother.

One woman bought a special highchair for her son, who shows signs of cerebral palsy. Another has been saving money for an expected battle with her landlord. A mother of two on West 145th Street is finding the regular infusion to be a lifesaver when food stamps run out.

Bridge Project money let Matos, 18, quit her minimum wage job and prepare for nursing school. Without it, “I would have to keep working while I’m going to school,” said Matos, who lives in Inwood with her mother, brother and 9-month-old daughter.

In April, the program will add 500 expecting mothers and expand into East Harlem, the South Bronx and the Central Bronx. The expansion comes after Congress did not reach an agreement on extending the federal child tax credit, which was giving families up to $300 monthly per child.

New Yorkers may be familiar with the concept of guaranteed income through the presidential and mayoral candidacies of Andrew Yang, who last year lofted a billion-dollar proposal to give $2,000 annually to the poorest half-million city residents, without making clear how he’d pay for it.

The nonprofit that runs the Bridge Project, the Monarch Foundation, said it hoped to partner with New York’s new mayor, Eric Adams but has not approached him yet. (During the campaign, Adams derided Yang’s idea as “monopoly money.”)

The central idea of the guaranteed income movement is that the most effective treatment for poverty is to simply give people money and let them decide what to do with it, rather than impose the rules, limitations and bureaucratic hoops that come with most safety net programs.

“You’re talking about giving somebody money and letting them apply it to the highest-need area of life: keeping the heat on, contacting family in Venezuela, taking an Uber to the hospital, getting an unlimited MetroCard,” said Megha Agarwal, the foundation’s executive director.

The Bridge Project’s mission also dovetails with growing evidence that money invested in a child’s first few years yields long-term benefits in academic success, adult earnings and health.

The Bridge Project families, whose household incomes average $14,500 — below the federal poverty line — are roughly half Black and half Hispanic; about 20% of the mothers are living in the country without legal permission. More than 70% had less than $100 in savings.

For the first 100 families in the project, half get $500 per month and half get $1,000 per month, for three years. The families in the second phase are receiving $1,000 monthly for 18 months, then $500 monthly for 18 months. A control group of families receives no money.

The families will be surveyed to track their economic and housing stability, their physical and mental health, and their children’s developmental progress.

Some Bridge Project families also receive government money. About 5% get monthly Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and some receive the annual federal and state earned income tax credit, the Monarch Foundation said. While Bridge Project money affects some families’ benefits, including food stamps, the project said that everyone in the program is seeing a net gain overall.

Guaranteed income shot to national prominence in 2018 when the city of Stockton, California, decided to give $500 monthly to 125 families in poorer neighborhoods.

Today, more than 35 guaranteed income pilot projects are underway, in at least 17 states, distributing more than $25 million a year to over 7,000 families, according to the Economic Security Project, which advocates for direct cash programs.

The Stockton project found that people in the study who received money found full-time employment at twice the rate of those who did not. They were also less depressed and anxious, slept better and had better physical health.

This year, Los Angeles and Chicago are beginning the two biggest publicly funded guaranteed income pilots to date. Chicago will pay 5,000 families $500 per month; Los Angeles will pay 3,000 families $1,000 per month.

In New York, the nation’s biggest city, though, guaranteed income has had little presence. A project led by neuroscientists, Baby’s First Years, is giving $333 monthly to mothers in four cities, including 114 in New York, and measuring its effect on the development of a child’s brain. And in 2020, when Yang ran for president, a nonprofit he founded gave $1,000 apiece to 1,000 Bronx families.

There is plenty of need, though. More than 1 in 4 Black children in New York City live in poverty, as do nearly 1 in 3 Hispanic children, according to the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York City.

The Bridge Project sprang from Nido de Esperanza, a nonprofit that helps low-income mothers in Washington Heights, and was founded by Holly Fogle, the wife of a venture capitalist, Jeff Lieberman. The couple also run the Monarch Foundation.

Early in the pandemic, Fogle said, Nido’s offices were flooded with desperate calls. “I had moms calling saying, ‘We have no diapers, no cash, no formula for this baby and we’re scared to leave our apartment,’” she recalled.

Nido distributed $150,000 in aid to 100 families, and Fogle, a onetime finance major, became a believer in what she called the “return on investment” of direct aid.

For Maureen Gardner, 35, the Bridge Project came along when she was six months pregnant, not working and had just learned that the woman she had been subletting her Harlem apartment from apparently had been pocketing her $1,500 rent checks.

“When I called the management office they were like, ‘We don’t know who you are, we don’t know who this lady is,’” Gardner said. She was told she owed thousands in back rent.

Because she receives food stamps for her and her son, Garrett, who was born in September, and has not been paying rent while her tenancy remains disputed, Gardner has been able to save nearly $5,000 from her Bridge Project payments.

“When it is time to leave, I’ll have the money to leave,” she said.

She also made a purchase that some would view as a luxury but that Gardner sees as a way to protect her and Garrett’s health: a $430 washing machine that lets her avoid her building’s laundry room, where many tenants do not wear masks. “My baby doesn’t even have shots,” she said.

Like the other three women interviewed for this article, Gardner said that her child’s father contributed money sporadically and that she could not count on his consistent support.

For Matos, the Bridge Project gave her the luxury of time. She quit her job as a program aide at the Harlem Children’s Zone in October to prepare to start nursing school next week.

Amy Castro, a co-director of the Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania, said that “time scarcity” kept many poor families mired in poverty.

“If you’re struggling to make ends meet and you’re knitting together two or three part-time jobs,” she said, “you don’t have time to plan for the future or even to think.”

A 35-year-old immigrant from Nigeria who gave her name only as Sue because she is living in this country without legal permission said that $500 monthly from the Bridge Project lets her buy snacks for her 3-year-old son, who does not like the lunches at his preschool. “I don’t want him to be on an empty stomach every day,” she said.

Sue, who works part time at a beauty supply store and receives some financial support from an aunt, gets $459 in food stamps for her son and 9-month-old daughter, but her food stamp card falls short.

“That’s where I have the backup with the Bridge money,” she said.

Guaranteed income is hardly a panacea in a city as expensive as New York.

“An additional $500 or $1,000 is not going to get you out of homelessness in New York City,” Castro said, “but it might prevent you from hitting that bottom.”

It has had that effect for Daniela Gutierrez. Before the pandemic, Gutierrez, 28, scraped by working jobs in three different boroughs — at a Chipotle in Manhattan, as a tutor at a library in the Bronx and in the enrollment office of Queens College.

Soon the library closed and Chipotle slashed her hours. Then she got pregnant. Her rent was $1,044 and she was taking home about $1,000 a month.

“I was actually looking for shelters before I got a reply from the Bridge Project,” she said.

After her son, Jeremiah, was born in June, it was quickly apparent that he could not move normally. Doctors told Gutierrez he might have a form of cerebral palsy.

Gutierrez is working her Queens College job remotely, which lets her take breaks to massage Jeremiah to help relieve the muscle spasms that rack his body. But she is bracing for the day when she will have to return to the office and find a way to pay for child care.

“I need to find a place that would care for him the same way I do,” she said.

Gutierrez was under the impression that the Bridge Project money was for only a year. “I have six months left, and that rushes by really fast,” she said. “It’s just a stressful, stressful situation.”

A few hours later, the Bridge Project confirmed that the payments were for three years.

“I think I’m going to be sleeping worry-free for the first time in a while,” Gutierrez said.

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